Are Bio Pellets becoming a thing of the past?

[Eric Morissette]

Following

 

[gobeach]

I been using ECOBAK PLUS pellets in my 150 mixed Reef with great results. Took about two months to see my nitrates under great control and I have 14 fish and feed 3 times a days. I also use purigen? In my sump and chemipure Blue. NO3 around 5-10 usually towards the lower end and the reactor exhaust hose I have going into my skimmer intake.

When I was using pellets, the Ecobak's were the best I came across - worked great.

I have no issues with reactor clogging up these pellets just dissolve. I’ll try the find reactor name but it was a Asian brand

The first reactor I used was the CAD Lights conic recirculation reactor - once I got it dialed in the pellets got great movement, but once they got smaller they jammed in the bottom plate. The second reactor was just a standard media reactor, and I wasn't able to get even flow throughout the reactor and I got nervous about stagnant pellets.

I'm happy with the results from dosing vinegar these days, the tank is pretty healthy in spite of my neglect!

 

[MnFish1]

All organic carbon ends up as carbon dioxide after being metabolized, reducing pH (unless it is dosed with something that offsets the effect, such as limewater).

And then isn’t the co2 gassed off in the air? Depending on the concentration in the room?

 

[Hitman]

And then isn’t the co2 gassed off in the air? Depending on the concentration in the room?

Ah that’s a good question! I have a newer home that was built just shy of 4 years ago and it’s air tight. I opened my windows for the day a few weeks ago and my PH jumped almost to 9. I have to change out my CO2 scrubber media in both scrubbers weekly just to keep it at 8.1 with the house closed up

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

And then isn’t the co2 gassed off in the air? Depending on the concentration in the room?

Yes, but if that was happening perfectly, you’d likely see no daily pH variation, so the off gassing is far from perfect. [emoji3]

 

[MnFish1]

Yes, but if that was happening perfectly, you’d likely see no daily pH variation, so the off gassing is far from perfect. [emoji3]

Right. But likely also is that you wouldn’t see a ph change or?

 

[MnFish1]

The answer I think. The amount of carbon produced by a tank dwarves that produced by breathing humans in a closed house..... Guess. No evidence

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Right. But likely also is that you wouldn’t see a ph change or?

I do not know how much pH change you'd see from pellets, since I am not certain how fast they are degraded.

I'm confident the soluble organics I was adding were significant to the CO2 balance.

For comparison, let's see how much CO2 equivalent is in 100 mL of vinegar (less than I was usually dosing) each day.

100 mL vinegar contains 5 grams of acetic acid, which has 5g/60 grams per mole = 0.083 moles of acetic acid, which, if all converted into CO2, would be 2 x 0.083 = 0.17 moles CO2.

0.17 moles of CO2 would occupy 3.7 liters of gas volume at room temp and pressure. That is equivalent to the amount of CO2 in 9,300 L of normal air. That's not a massive amount, but remember it is all generated in the water.

 

[maxwell]

I run pellets and there is no change in the PH as tank is monitored 24/7, the PH changes are due to variations in KH. I run a dastaco reactor which I monitored the KH for 2 weeks prior to using the dosing set up and the KH and PH was varying btwn 7.5/8.5 (kh) and 7.6/8.1(ph) over the 24/7 period.Using the doser part the KH is now 8.22 and PH of 8 and very stable.
Bill

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I run pellets and there is no change in the PH as tank is monitored 24/7, the PH changes are due to variations in KH. I run a dastaco reactor which I monitored the KH for 2 weeks prior to using the dosing set up and the KH and PH was varying btwn 7.5/8.5 (kh) and 7.6/8.1(ph) over the 24/7 period.Using the doser part the KH is now 8.22 and PH of 8 and very stable.
Bill

If there is a constant, steady release of CO2 lowering the pH, as one might expect with biopellets, I don't see what a pH measurement can reveal about the extent of it without an experiment where you removed it and changed nothing else.

 

[Hitman]

For those running Bio Pellets have you noticed any adverse effects with dosing your 2 part?
Also just to keep this interesting could one also dose KNO3 to keep PO4 and NO3 detectable?

 

[jasonrusso]

For those running Bio Pellets have you noticed any adverse effects with dosing your 2 part?
Also just to keep this interesting could one also dose KNO3 to keep PO4 and NO3 detectable?

I don't know why you would dose something that the biopellets are supposed to get rid of. It's like running a chiller and a heater at the same time.

 

[DSC reef]

I don't know why you would dose something that the biopellets are supposed to get rid of. It's like running a chiller and a heater at the same time.

Balance? I run a heater with my chiller during the cold months. Chiller is to keep the temp down from halides and the heater keeps it warm at night. The right settings and they don't battle eachother.

 

[jasonrusso]

Balance? I run a heater with my chiller during the cold months. Chiller is to keep the temp down from halides and the heater keeps it warm at night. The right settings and they don't battle eachother.

That sounds a bit extreme (natural reefs have fluctuations in temp), but you aren't running them at the same time.

If you are dosing nitrates while running any sort of carbon dosing (pellets, No4Pox, vodka) then you are just feeding the bacteria. You would be better off dosing 50% of the recommended dose of po4nox.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I don't know why you would dose something that the biopellets are supposed to get rid of. It's like running a chiller and a heater at the same time.

There actually might be cause to dose a nitrate or phosphate source when carbon dosing (or running biopellets). For carbon dosing to work you need to have both N and P. If one is lacking, the bacteria won't grow and multiply (and get exported by your skimmer). So you might need to dose one or the other to allow the bacteria to grow.

 

[jasonrusso]

There actually might be cause to dose a nitrate or phosphate source when carbon dosing (or running biopellets). For carbon dosing to work you need to have both N and P. If one is lacking, the bacteria won't grow and multiply (and get exported by your skimmer). So you might need to dose one or the other to allow the bacteria to grow.

But you would have to stop at some point, correct? Once the bacteria colony gets established.

 

[redfishbluefish]

You would stop once the other nutrient got down to a reasonable number.

As an example, let's say my nitrates were at 30 and phosphates were reading zero. Carbon dosing has stalled. I'd dose a phosphate solution until my nitrates were down to 5 or so.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

I don't know why you would dose something that the biopellets are supposed to get rid of. It's like running a chiller and a heater at the same time.

Lately I have been testing the waters of adding KNO3 with the intention of lowering PO4 (even though I run a minimal amount of AIO pellets). In my case, my nitrate is not limiting, it is usually about 2 ppm, and I dose only enough to add 0.5 ppm NO3 to the water column. I mix the KNO3 with a small amount of TM Reef Actif. TM states that Reef Actif will pull inorganic nutrients from the water column and make them bio available to corals, claiming it is a biopolymer. I always assumed it was finely ground up biopellets. So far this technique has worked surprisingly well to selectively lower PO4 will keeping my NO3 at the desired level. Because I only run a small amount of pellets, I can easily over feed, and my phosphate will spike and be pulled down slowly over a couple of days (by the pellets). By using KNO3 and Reef Actif, I can balance the phosphate additions and speed of phosphate exports.

Dennis

 

[Bug235]

When I was using pellets, the Ecobak's were the best I came across - worked great.



The first reactor I used was the CAD Lights conic recirculation reactor - once I got it dialed in the pellets got great movement, but once they got smaller they jammed in the bottom plate. The second reactor was just a standard media reactor, and I wasn't able to get even flow throughout the reactor and I got nervous about stagnant pellets.

I'm happy with the results from dosing vinegar these days, the tank is pretty healthy in spite of my neglect!

We all have to go with what works for your tank!!

 

[sidney109]

The answer I think. The amount of carbon produced by a tank dwarves that produced by breathing humans in a closed house..... Guess. No evidence

An interesting thread is lasses build thread where somewhere in those 32 pages he has graphs of his tanks ph v his homes co levels, you can see when he wasnt there for a while and the tank leveled out.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/lasses-dream-build.246188/